Jeanie Lee: By adding empathy to the syllabus, DC Public Schools can dismantle systemic racism in the classroom
At the turn of this new year, we witnessed hundreds of years of racist history and oppression play out on national television, as white supremacist insurrectionists seized the U.S. Capitol. We witnessed the unapologetic double standards that exist in far too many of our systems, so often fueled by race.
It should come as no surprise, then, that education systems which originated hundreds of years ago — intentionally and systematically designed to promote, privilege and advantage specific groups, and oppress others — have not changed. Schools were not designed to help students of color, especially Black and brown students, reach their full potential because the majority of decisions, policies, structures and expectations do not center around human development, or the unique context each student carries with them. Instead, when students do not meet behavioral expectations, many education systems — even the highest performing — draw on assumptions and biases that lead to harsh, destructive, racist practices. The end result? Students get mislabeled and are put on a path to failure. Rinse and repeat.
From my own experience, I can attest to the truth of this. Fresh out of college in 1999, I became a public school teacher. We were trained on how to organize, instruct, assess — and how to build a rich repertoire of pedagogical tricks and habits. But there was no course on how to build relationships with kids, how to foster identity, and how the science of learning and human development can help shape the way a teacher perceives their students, especially in times of crisis. As a 23-year-old, I didn’t know how to recognize the connection between trauma-induced stress and a student’s cry for help. With one student, it started with outbursts in class, the growing number of fights during lunch, and the constant search for destructive behavior. I “managed” it by punishing and isolating her, which only escalated her behavior even more. Finally, after weeks of battling this out, all it took was one question — “Are you OK?” — to learn that this student’s father had been killed in a car accident weeks earlier. Amid the tragedy, no one had thought to notify the school. My student was left to grieve her loss without anyone at school knowing. Sadly, she is not alone.
In a recent survey across 25 states by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 61% of adults reported that they had experienced at least one traumatic event during childhood, called Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs. These experiences include but aren’t limited to domestic violence, abuse, neglect, or having a family member attempt or die by suicide. In DC specifically, 23.8% of children are experiencing extreme economic hardship, according to the Data Resource Center for Child & Adolescent Health. These ACEs and other sources of trauma stay with students well into adulthood, affecting their social, emotional, health and economic outcomes.
Unfortunately, many public school systems were never built to navigate or address trauma or appropriately manage crises in the classroom. We take default approaches to deal with misbehavior — quick fixes that neither cut through our assumptions to reach the core of why misbehavior is occurring in the first place nor equip educators, current and future, with the tools to meaningfully connect with students. These patterns end up perpetuating negative cycles often grounded in systemic racism and bias. But there is hope.
For an urban district in America like ours in DC, supporting students through crisis will pave their path to racial equity and healing for all kids, especially those furthest from opportunity. In the last decade, DC Public Schools (DCPS) has transformed itself from a historically underperforming system to one that is nationally recognized for its talent, rigorous academic curriculum, and steadily growing student achievement. According to an internal DCPS analysis, over the last three years, DCPS has retained more than 96% of its teachers rated as “highly effective,” and 100% of its “highly effective” principals. DCPS students have shown more growth than those in any other urban school district as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In 2019, DCPS marked the fourth consecutive year of growth on PARCC, DC’s annual assessment of mathematics and English language arts/literacy. All of these accomplishments situate DCPS on a solid foundation, but they also set the stage for what will arguably be the school system’s most ambitious transformation agenda for kids.
DCPS Becoming — the next step in the system’s evolutionary reform cycle — builds upon its strategy to reach and care for the whole child. It is an agenda that will dismantle centuries of oppressive behaviors that mislabel student trauma as “poor Black kid issues” and will instead develop educators into human development experts so they can recognize, address and manage crises with empathy. DCPS Becoming is about building student resilience and establishing strong student identities so that they can become the very best versions of themselves in school and in life.
In the next five years, the DC Public Education Fund aims to raise $18 million to support DCPS Becoming. The Ed Fund has been DCPS’ philanthropic connector and champion since 2007, raising more than $150 million in private investment to support the school system’s most transformative legacy initiatives. This will be no different.
Our students need more if we expect more. We have reached the limit of what can be achieved without rethinking our approach. It’s time to challenge the norm and start seeing young people as our biggest assets.
Jeanie Lee is president and executive director of the DC Public Education Fund. She was previously chief of staff in the Office of Teaching and Learning at DC Public Schools.
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